The Palestinian Prisoners Center for Studies reported that the conditions of Palestinian prisoners in occupation prisons have worsened significantly following the imposition of further sanctions upon the prisoners by the occupation forces, imposed during the mass arrest campaign following the disappearance of three settlers in June and maintained throughout the Israeli assault on Gaza that killed over 1850 Palestinians.
The occupation prison administration has cut recreation time in half, reduced the maximum amount each prisoner can have in his or her “canteen” fund (provided by family or Palestinian sources) from 1,200 shekels maximum to only 400 shekels, reduced family visits to one half-hour each month, removed 7 satellite channels of 10 from prison television (and 2 of the 3 remaining channels are Zionist channels).
Raafat Hamdouna reported that the prisoners reject these sanctions, which are designed to prevent them from learning the truth about the war on Gaza, the Israeli crimes and the Palestinian resistance, and are planning to protest these sanctions as part of the war against prisoners and in particular those from Gaza, who are suffering an additional heavy burden behind bars while their families face bombing and destruction.
Meanwhile the Palestinian Prisoners Society reported ongoing attacks by prison administration on prisoners in various prisons. In Gilboa prison, the prison administration claimed to discover a tunnel in one of the prison sections and transferred the prisoners affiliated with Islamic Jihad to Hasharon and Hadarim prisons, and isolated Muhannad Zayoud and Muhannad Sawalha. They raided each of the sections of the prison throughout the night, and invaded section 5 – which houses prisoners from Jerusalem and occupied Palestine ’48 – for 5 hours. On Sunday, special units invaded section 1 for 6 hours, and section 2 has been closed since Sunday.
Similar to the pretext used in Gaza to attack civilians massively, the Israeli prison administration has used claims of “searching for tunnels” to engage in abusive raids and “inspections” in Ashkelon prison, damaging prisoners’ belongings and vandalizing and ransacking the rooms.
